The present invention broadly relates to a wrapping web container and a cutting tool provided on the container. More particularly, the present invention is concerned with a container for containing a roll of a wrapping web such as a wrapping film, aluminum foil or thin sheet of paper for wrapping foods, drugs and so forth, and a cutter provided on the container and adapted for cutting the wrapping material after any length of the wrapping web has been unrolled and extracted from the container.
A wrapping web container is known in which a wrapping web such as a wrapping film, aluinum foil, a thin paper sheet, e.g., glassine paper or paper processed from glassine, or the like (referred to generally as web hereinafter), is contained in the form of a roll, the web being unrolled and extracted a desired length suitable for wrapping an object such as food, a drug or the like. Usually, this type of container comprises a paper box provided with a metallic cutter for cutting and severing the extracted portion of the web.
FIG. 1 illustrates one of the conventional wrapping web containers of the kind described above. As will be seen from this Figure, the wrapping web container 1 has a box-like structure of paper, the container 1 being composed of an open-top container portion 3 for containing a roll 2 of a wrapping web such as a wrapping film or an aluminum foil for wrapping mainly foods, and a lid portion 4 connected to the container portion 3 and foldable and swingable along the axis of a folding line 6. The container 1 also has a series of cutting teeth in the form of saw teeth, which is formed on one longitudinal edge thereof. The cutting tool 5 is fixed onto the bottom surface of the container portion 3 such that the teeth slightly and forwardly project from the front wall of the container portion 3.
However, this type of wrapping web container suffers from a problem in that, when it is disposed of and burnt together with other paper trash, the metallic cutting tool remains unburnt. It would be possible to separate the cutting tool before burning the container, but such separation would require some troublesome work. Thus, the known wrapping web container has posed a problem as regards the difficulty of burning it, regardless of whether the burning is conducted in a household trash burner or a public incinerator.
Another problem is that, since the saw-like teeth provided on the cutting tool are metallic teeth projected forwardly from the front wall of the container, the user's hand can be sometimes injured by these teeth when separating a desired length of web after extraction of the same from the container.
Furthermore, the cutting tool made of any metal tends to become rusty, which is quite inconvenient from the view point of health, particularly when the web is used for wrapping foods.
Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 47-34588 discloses a container for containing a roll of soft aluminum foil, in which a cutting tool with saw-teeth-like cutting teeth are integrally formed on the upper edge of the front wall. In the production of this wrapping web container, a solution composed mainly of sodium silicate or an epoxy resin or the like is applied to the toothed upper edge of the front wall of the container and the toothed edge is then dried to form a cutting tool portion having a comparatively high rigidity.
Japanese Patent Publication No. 48-36392 also shows a similar cutting tool in which a cutting tool portion is formed by dipping a toothed edge of the container wall in a solution suspending a hardening agent such as glass powder and then drying and hardening the solution to impart a considerably high rigidity to the toothed portion.
The cutting tools of the above containers formed integrally with the container boxes might be advantageous in that they are soft as compared with conventional metallic cutting tools and in that they are free of rust generation. However, these cutting tools fail to provide a cutting tool having sufficiently high strength and sharpness because a film or membrane of a resin or the like is formed on the cutting teeth. In addition, the production of the containers with such cutting tools requires a considerably long and relatively complicated process after dipping the toothed portion in a resin or applying a resin to it, because of the necessity for leaving the toothed portion under a high temperature during the long period of time needed for the drying and hardening of it.